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Carleton College Data & Information Overview

134 awards Ranking Badges
Great Price Value for Your Money
18% Acceptance Rate
If you want to know more about Carleton College, such as what majors does it offer, how diverse it is, how well it ranks, and more, this is your one-stop resource.
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How Well Is Carleton College Ranked?

#93 Best Colleges in Nation
#2 Best Colleges in MN
Social Sciences Highest Ranked Major
Quality Badge

2024 Rankings

College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities in its annual rankings and ranks them in a variety of ways, including most diverse, best overall quality, best for non-traditional students, and much more.

Carleton College was awarded 134 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is social sciences.

Explore Best Ranked Schools for You

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Overall Quality

Carleton landed the #93 spot in College Factual's 2024 ranking of best overall colleges in the United States. The higher ed experts analyzed 2,217 colleges and universities across the nation to determine this ranking. This lands it a coveted spot in the top 5% of all colleges and universities in the country. Carleton has maintained this ranking for at least two years in a row.

Carleton also holds the #2 spot on the Best Colleges in Minnesota ranking.

See all of the rankings for Carleton College.

Is It Hard to Get Into Carleton?

18% Acceptance Rate
51% Of Accepted Are Women
35% Submit SAT Scores

Acceptance Rate

Carleton College has a very low acceptance rate of 18%, making it one of the most selective out of all the colleges and universities in the nation. It's probably a good idea to apply to other schools in addition to Carleton just in case you don't make the cut.

Average Test Scores

About 35% of students accepted to Carleton submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 698 and 760. Math scores were between 710 and 790.

SAT Reading and Writing Scores for Carleton College  ( 698 to 760 )
200
800

SAT Math Scores for Carleton College  ( 710 to 790 )
200
800
Carleton received ACT scores from 34% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 31 and 35.

ACT Composite Scores for Carleton College  ( 31 to 35 )
1
36

Learn more about Carleton College admissions.

Carleton College Faculty

8 to 1 Student to Faculty
78% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio at Carleton is an impressive 8 to 1. That's quite good when you compare it to the national average of 15 to 1. This is a good sign that students at the school will have more opportunities for one-on-one interactions with their professors.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

Another measure that is often used to estimate how much access students will have to their professors is how many faculty members are full-time. The idea here is that part-time faculty tend to spend less time on campus, so they may not be as available to students as full-timers.

The full-time faculty percentage at Carleton College is 78%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  78 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Carleton College

95% Freshmen Retention
88% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

Carleton College has a freshmen retention rate of 95%. That's a good sign that full-time students like the school and their professors enough to want to stick around for another year. It's also a sign that the admissions team did a good job in choosing applicants who were a good fit for the school.

Freshmen Retention Rate  95 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

Students are considered to have graduated on time if they finish their studies within four years. At Carleton the on-time graduation rate of first-time, full-time students is 88%. That is great when compared to the national average of 33.3%

On-Time Graduation Rate  88 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Carleton College.

Carleton College Undergraduate Student Diversity

1,918 Full-Time Undergraduates
32.4% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
52.1% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 1,940 undergraduates at Carleton with 1,918 being full-time and 22 being part-time.

How Much Does Carleton College Cost?

$28,928 Net Price
45% Take Out Loans
$18,388 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of Carleton is $28,928. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.

Net Price by Income Group for Carleton

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$6,208 $13,410 $15,991 $22,868 $39,882

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of Carleton, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student Loan Debt

It's not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At Carleton, approximately 45% of students took out student loans averaging $4,597 a year. That adds up to $18,388 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Carleton is 0.8%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Get more details about paying for Carleton College.

How Much Money Do Carleton Graduates Make?

$67,132 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from Carleton with a bachelor's degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $67,132 in their early years. That's great news for Carleton students since it is 58% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.

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See which majors at Carleton College make the most money.

Location of Carleton College

Minnesota State
1,918 Full-Time Undergraduates
Town Campus Setting
Carleton College is a private not-for-profit institution situated in Northfield, Minnesota. The charming, small-town atmosphere of Northfield draws many to the area.

Get more details about the location of Carleton College.

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Contact details for Carleton are given below.

Contact Details
Address: One North College Street, Northfield, MN 55057
Phone: 507-222-4000
Website: https://www.carleton.edu/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CarletonCollege
Twitter: http://twitter.com/CarletonCollege

Carleton College Majors

31 Majors With Completions
517 Undergraduate Degrees
Most Popular Majors Bachelor’s Degrees Average Salary of Graduates
Computer Science 54 $76,876
General Biology 53 $28,526
Mathematics 45 $46,952
International Relations & National Security 38 NA
Child Development & Psychology 35 NA
Economics 30 $60,032
History 28 NA
General English Literature 27 $27,425
Fine & Studio Arts 23 NA
Geological & Earth Sciences 21 $20,625

Learn more about the majors offered at Carleton College along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Learn more about online learning at Carleton College.

If you’re considering Carleton College, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.

Curious on how these schools stack up against Carleton? Pit them head to head with College Combat, our free interactive tool that lets you compare college on the features that matter most to you!

Notes and References

Footnotes

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

References

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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